Tatoue Sur Le Coeur
by watching every sunset
Summary: "But this is what you wanted, isn't it Rosie?" His smile turned sadictive. "For yourself? Without a care for anyone else?" "I-I told you not to call me that..." Wrath. Lust. Pride. Sloth. Greed. Gluttony. Envy? Sequel to I Am All of You.
1. Prologue: Grazing

What would a CherrleTheChicken stories be without starting off with one of my very tedious author notes, eh?

Basically, I just wanted to clear a few things up.

I did say there would be romance in this story. As you know, I'm not too much of a fluff writer. Like, even reading it... I'll admit, even I'm a sucker for some Knouge fluff (although getting fluff out of those two is like trying to find a needle in a haystack... *sweatdrops*) But even too much makes me go... Eckk. Silvaze too. Sonamy... I can only have limited amounts of Sonamy before I go crazy... Taiream's all good because it's usually like limited and I have yet to see some _in character _Shadikal fluff...

ANYWAY. I don't do fluff so well. I do, however, after the events of I Am, have to include some couplings. Sonamy, I'm still figuring if it should be one sided and it will be mainly... Angst. Which, I do like. Knouge, I kinda have to do now but (for once) we won't be focusing on them _as a couple_. Like I said, I'm thinking about a little Shadikal, although whether it be one-sided or even exist I'm still not sure.

But anyway, before I said we won't be focusing on them _as a couple_... But all of our characters will have a respective main roll. We'll be focusing a lot on characterization. I will say now that some things will be a little OOC. This is purely because, to be honest, with what happened in I Am I don't think anybody would get through it 100% in character. Of course, I'm not taking them out of themselves... We might see a more sensitive side to some characters and a harsher one to others.

I'm also trying to keep with the running... Kinda of down theme. It just goes.

There will be themes that could be taken as religious. I assure you, I mean them in no religious way. You'll understand when we get there (quite a bit later), for now don't worry, but I'm just saying I'm not 100% anything really so anything will be made up to go with the story (basically, when Tikal arrives and some of the things she says... Well, you'll get it)

Again, there will be my own take on traditions + stuff...

Basically, I hope you enjoy it. I'm trying to get this to be really well written... Personally, I think a few parts of I Am were kinda rushed and could've been done better. I'm not going to be rewriting it though.

And Unexpected... I'm not ditching it. I'm just trying to find myself with it once again.

So without further ado here's Tatoué Sur Le Cœur.

P.S if you didn't know tatoué sur le cœur translated into English means 'Tattooed on my heart'. I don't speak French well (I can string together like two sentences and know random words :P) so I had to go on Google Translate, then double check with my Mum to see if it was right :L. And if I didn't cover it in I Am, the reason it was called I Am All Of You was becuase one of Shadow's themes is titled I Am All Of Me and he was a part of them… I had no other titles ideas. Shut up.

I do not own any SEGA characters and/or places. If you see an OC crop up anywhere, it'll probably be mine or a friend on here's… They wont be important to the story. Enjoy !

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-Two years previously-

_For each guardian, there is a spirit guardian. The duty of the guardian is simple; protect the ancient relic of the Pachacamac clan from harm. The duty of the spirit guardian is a gift received only after death. Only if the ancient Gods honour the life of the clan member will they become spirit guardian. The spirit guardian must reside inside the Master Emerald, keeping Chaos at bay. One will be reunited with a physical form only if great peril comes to the clan or the seven servers. _

Pure, calm sapphire eyes opened for the first time since Chaos had been unleashed. A soft wave of panic swept over the spirit guardian's soul; she had experienced and knew all too well what was coming.

Dreadful, undying pain ripped through her soul; she could not scream, only endure. Great peril must be near.

The next thing Tikal knew she was lying face down upon stone slabs. They grazed her unprotected arms and knees, causing a dull pain as panic swept through her physical form.

_Danger. I can feel it._

Arms weak and not used to her current form, she slowly, shakily lifted herself, stumbling towards the emerald. Carefully, she placed both palms as an image arose upon the unwavering green surface.

The first being her eyes came upon was a hedgehog. His stance was one of aggression; legs shoulder length apart, fists clenched, eyes slits, lips upturned into a snarl. This was, sadly, a stance she was used to seeing. This was the stance that her clan had died in.

Ebony fur covered his body, slightly ruffled and slowly moving in the wind. Although the wind was dead...

Anger radiated from his being, bubbling over his ruby eyes.

Ebony and ruby... It was said that colours reflect one's personality. Black... Black represented death, unforgiving and cruel. She felt it suited him well.

The bright red of his eyes and fur surprised her. True, red was the colour of blood but it was also a colour highly thought of by the Pachacamac clan; red stood for passion, love and caring. It was one of the primary colours of the clan and being placed upon such an aggressive creature surprised her.

Slowly, she forced her eyes from the creature, just noticing that he had companions.

The first, seemed, on the outside also angry but... Troubled; it was true, she did look a female the clan would chastise, but Tikal could see the power within. Although she was not as obvious as her companion, this was not somebody Tikal wished to anger.

Once again, the fur colouring surprised her.

White. White stood for purity, especially in females. Purity and innocence.

The second she noticed was a piercing green. Green was regarded as nature; natural beauty and the surrounding world. Green was also read as hope, something that seemed very absent within the female's eyes.

The third was, once again red and black and radiated anger. Almost... Inhuman anger. This was something Tikal had never come across before: a completely functioning metal man.

Silver flecked his... Pelt? Silver stood for the supernatural. The night.

She had never seen these three before in her life, but a cold chill crept up her spine. She was already wary of the trio.

_Wrath._

_Lust._

_Pride._

Tikal blinked. Surely... It couldn't be...

Mouths were moving; the hedgehog was talking. It was then that she noticed the screen... People she knew... That cocky, speedy cobalt hedgehog, his forest eyes shining dully; the pink hedgehog, emerald eyes filled with sorrow, overflowing with tears; a young, naïve orange fox, sapphire filled with fear... And the cold, limp, blood soaked body of the young-minded yet golden hearted lavender cat.

And _him_.

The guardian.

A... Creature divided Sonic, the wind element and the guardian, a new, thick piece of machinery being waved between them, one that she had never come across in such a clear way.

Tikal knew why she had been summoned.

The words stuck into her ears.

"I choose to kill... Knucl-"

"NO!" They screamed it at the same time, although for now she did not notice the cobalt hedgehog rising. Her white clad hands thumped onto the emerald.

_No, no, not him. The clan needs him..._

More talking. Tikal prayed to the ancestors, willing to hear what was happening... To no avail.

And finally...

_Bang._

Wind fell to the floor.

Tikal squeezed her eyes closed but the images still invaded.

She was forced to watch the horror unfold in front of her.

**-Present day-**

"_And Amy... Take care of yourself..."_

"_Got you! My darling Sonic!"_

"_Uh... A-Amy!"_

"_Sonic! There's no way outta marrying me!"_

"_Sonic, give up! This time, you're mine!"_

"_Hey, wait for me! He's such a brat sometimes..."_

"_A girl? Please, tell me what Sonic needs from this cat girl!"_

"_If I had to choose between the world and Sonic... I'd choose Sonic!"_

_A smile; the ghost of something that had not been around for two years._

_Amy stood in a field, flowers coloured rose, magenta, lavender, salmon, tangerine... Every colour of the known rainbow and more, the sweet scent dancing over her palette... Yet none as sweet as the smell of Sonic. The voices of Sonic and herself sang around her, dancing above her pink-quilled head._

"_It's too bad the choice was never yours to make."_

_The voice stopped her dead. _

_A single chill ran up her spine._

_"No. That sick, twisted bastard killed him. And you're just as sick for believing him. You don't even know what love is. Just a stupid little infatuation that will pass within a few months. It's funny; you were quite happy to go along with anyone else being murdered in cold blood as long as __you __got who __you __wanted to live. But, then again, you've always been like that, haven't you? You lived but that's not good enough, is it? You're life has been spared, you're blood not spilled. You're lucky to be alive. You saw what had to happen and you have the __audacity __to blame the three of us? You are an ungrateful little bitch; you always have been and always will be."_

_Shadow's cold words froze her._

"_Amy... Sonic's gone..."_

_But Tails... Sweet, naïve Tails... He can't be... He... He's..._

_Special._

_Blood lapped Amy's cherry red boots._

_He lay in front of her. Forest eyes stared, unforgiving, into her own. _

_No._

_No!_

_NO!_

_Why can't you just understand...?_

_Falling with a strong __**thud! **__onto her knees, Amy gently took the cobalt hedgehogs' head into her arms, cradling it against her. That cold-hearted, sadistic, metallic laugh echoed around._

_It's not real..._

_It can't be..._

_I love him..._

"_You don't know what love is."_

_A sneer ,a jibe, a laugh._

_I do!_

_Just... Let me prove it..._

_I want him._

_I __need __him._

_I love him..._

_I love him..._

_I LOVE HIM!_

_Sonic..._

"Amy...?"

Amy Rose sprang into a sitting position. Sweat covered her body, her hair was tangled and she gasped for breath; it was just a nightmare. Dull bed sheets tangled among her limbs, restricting her movement.

Amy's eyes grazed the dark, cream room.

"A-are you okay?"

Tails stood warily in the wooden doorway, an old striped blue nightcap upon his head and worry in his eyes. He had heard her screaming... Nonsense about love, it had seemed but he was worried nonetheless.

She had been like this for some time now.

She nodded once, solemnly before glancing towards the clock.

5:42am.

"Okay."

He turned and softly padded into the hall with bare feet.

"Thank you Tails... For letting me stay here tonight."

He nodded wearily before stumbling to his own room.

**-Somewhere in the heart of the city-**

It was winter; bitter and cold.

This year had foretold of dangerous snowstorms and freezing conditions, although as of yet neither had shown up.

The city streets, often bustling busily with both Mobian and Human commuters, were silent, except for the occasional drunk, wolf whistling, winking or calling some kind of crude "compliment" or a homeless person littering the gutters. Two or three people were also making their way towards a work place, but all kept their heads down.

It was still dark; the predawn light was only just beginning to filter over the top of the buildings. The city would not get light for another good two hours at this time of year.

Lazily, she glanced above the grey, concrete towers to the cloudy, shadowed shape of the island in the sky.

True, she had thought of visiting instead of making the insane trek to work, but she knew that there was nothing artificial on the island, so the inhabitants did not wake until enough natural light flooded the island.

And besides, seeing as she was a highly regarded agent, if she got in early they might let her off early.

Slipping away from the cold winds, she entered the sliding doors of the large concrete and metal building.

Rolling her eyes, she placed one hand in the security system and with a painfully high pitched _ping! _the door opened.

G.U.N hadn't always been so secure but last year a (literally) raging bull by the name of Simon Cow had gotten hold of a card key and trashed the place, demanding he get more pay if he were to continue working.

City folk were crazy.

Rouge stretched and yawned, glancing at the large metallic clock on the wall opposite.

Ten to six.

She walked into the 'lounge' (really just large, practically bare room... G.U.N's way to keep employee rights above the bare minimum and spend little money). Going along with everything else G.U.N owned the whole place was black; walls, carpet, counters. One single potted plant stood in the corner. Next to the foliage was a fuchsia chameleon, legs crossed and eyes closed in a meditating position.

"Hello Rouge."

How he knew that it was her was beyond the ivory bat; he hadn't even opened his eyes let alone looked up.

"Hey Espio."

The following door opened into the grey computer room and she slowly sat in one of the creaky chairs.

Something Shadow had said had really thrown her off and she needed to check...

Hearing heavy, dragging footsteps, Rouge knew that the person approaching the room was whatever poor sap had gotten the night shift.

"You're up early."

Rouge glanced behind her. The voice had come from one of the newest apprentice agents: Samson the Lion. A smile was placed on his kind face, highlighted by glinting emerald eyes. He yawned, rubbing the bags under one eye with a huge paw.

Samson was a big guy, but that was one of the reasons G.U.N had accepted him at only sixteen; five foot nine and broad chested, wandered around in large Vans, his golden fur and thick, luxurious main often catching the sunlight.

Rouge laughed at his unkempt fur and tired eyes.

"Night shift?"

"No way! I've always spent my nights in a place that smells of metal and industrial weapons cleaner."

"Hope you had fun with that."

She spun back around, fingers flying over the worn keys of the large supercomputer as he trudged out of the building.

Finally, the information, or lack of it as it seemed, flashed onto the screen.

Rouge froze. Her gut turned to ice. This was exactly what she had feared.

"What is wrong?"

She hadn't heard the fuchsia chameleon enter the room, but at that moment Espio's espionage skills were the least of Rouge's worries.

"Call Shadow. Now."

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I realised that the last... Scene? Was kinda light. The story will take go darker, like it's prequel, but for now we'll leave it here.

**I'm trying to make this better written than I Am but I'll leave you to be the judge of that.**

**Samson is (you'll probably be glad to hear) a very small part of this story. Heck, he'll probably never show up again. I have a few OC's I cycle through for purposes such as this, him being one of them.**

**And Simon Cow? Extra points if you get it... I saw EchidnaGirl using names such as that to represent certain people and this instantly struck into my mind..**

**So... Here's your prologue?**

**Hopefully I'll update this quicker than everything else...**

**Cherrlex.**


	2. Misunderstanding

The constant thrumming of rain making a deadbeat sound upon the clear window panes made Tails grateful for the warmth of the house he was in. His right hand clutched a half-empty mug full of Hot Chocolate, which he had happily accepted from Vanilla, his left delicately holding a slice of shortbread. An old, faded blanket, but one that could only be described as _homely _rested upon his once shivering legs. True, only forty minutes ago had he been trekking through the cold, wintery rain, but right now his fur had begun to fluff up as it dried.

The young fox was in the bright, colourful, homely house of Vanilla the Rabbit; Cream's mother, who had begun to help Espio raise Charmy in Vector's absence. She sat to the right of him on the faded sofa, smiling lightly at the sounds of chatter filling her living room.

To his left sat Amy, who was wearing a large fluffy jumper and a pair of old jogging bottoms, courtesy of Vanilla; she had, too, braved the rain and her dress was currently lying in the tumble dryer; sipped delicately at more Hot Chocolate. Her green eyes were shining slightly, something he hadn't seen in a couple of months (and part of the reason he had called this gathering), and she seemed happier now that she was able to talk to Vanilla again.

The sofa was directly in front of a television, which was at the moment switched off, and a fire, which fed each inhabitant warmth, something each was grateful for.

To the right of the sofa sat another two-seater sofa, upon which both echidna's sat; Tikal, happily contributing to the conversation and holding her own cup of herbal tea, a towel draped around her small shoulders and hair dripping wet and Knuckles, who had politely (well, politely for Knuckles anyway) declined any offer of food, drink or clothing, claiming he was used to being outside in freak weather conditions.

Espio sat back calmly in a lone armchair, in front of the window to the left of Tails' sofa, a second cup of herbal tea grasped firmly in his hand, although he had not had to walk through the rain.

Quite literally sprawled on the floor, in the centre, was Charmy, a scattering of crayons and sheets of white paper surrounding the eight-year old. A rigid look of concentration was on his face, his tongue slightly poking from one side of his mouth as he carefully (as carefully as an eight year old could) coloured in a sheet of paper. Vanilla simply smiled fondly at the mess.

Tails glanced behind him to the large, wooden grandfather clock: 3:45. He sighed slightly; he had called the meeting at three, with Amy turning up just before, the echidna's arriving just after and he himself arriving on the dot. He felt slightly embarrassed as it had been through pure kindness that Vanilla had let the group meet at her house instead of his own small one, and he _had _emphasised how important this was... The seven had been waiting for a long time for the last of the invited few, but the unreliability of the trio was well known and they had certainly not let _themselves _down... Tails wasn't even sure if Shadow and Rouge would come together, send only one of them, bring Omega, or even show up at all... And the latter was looking the most plausible.

"I'm sorry..." He apologised once again for the lateness of his companions.

"That's quite alright dear. I'm sure that they will be here soon, if something important hasn't come up that is"

The whole room knew that 'something important' could be something as urgent as an unexpected mission... Or simply the sudden need to shop or, most likely, not wanting to socialize with anyone.

Just as Vanilla finished speaking, the doorbell rang, followed almost instantly by a strong, heavy, impatient knock, and an almost angry "hmph".

"I really hate the rain. It's gross." Was heard from outside, followed by the low muttering of a male voice.

Vanilla got up and walked towards the door, allowing the last two into the room.

Rouge carried a soaking wet, folded down umbrella and she herself seemed to be completely dry, her make up and hair looking as if she had not just walked through the rain, which made a huge difference compared to the soaking wet, bedraggled group; she was obviously the only one smart enough (or, more likely, vein enough) to have actually thought to bring an umbrella.

The same could not be said about Shadow, who was dripping with the stagnant water, his quills drooping heavily. Despite this, he sported the usual "I don't care what you think of me, I'm going to do and say what I like anyway" expression, glancing once around the room, letting out an almost unimpressed snort and folding his arms across his chest.

As expected, the mood in the room seemed to change instantly as the two controversial characters walked in; Tails himself, Vanilla, and Espio continued happily with what they were doing before, after exchanging greetings (although most were cautious nods or grunts). Amy herself seemed to tense slightly, as if preparing herself for an attack. She probably _was _preparing herself for an attack, although it was most likely a verbal snipe. Tails had seen with his own eyes that Amy could work and hold a normal conversation with both Shadow and Rouge, although this often depended on the mood of the older two.

A slight look of jealousy flickered through Knuckles' eyes, although it was gone before anyone apart from Tails could see it... Although he was sure Rouge had seen it as she smiled to herself.

It was Tikal's reaction that intrigued him the most, although he had seen it many times. She seemed to fold in upon herself slightly, as though she were protecting herself and her eyes filled with something that Tails could only describe as fear. Tikal always seemed to close up around Shadow, Rouge and Omega, for reasons that Tails did not know, but longed to find out. Her tolerance of the three seemed at different levels though from being able to talk to and converse normally around Shadow, only becoming slightly guarded and almost ignore Omega, yet seem often irritated (although she tried best to hide it) around Rouge, if not threatened. This could have something to do with the fact that she was forced to be around the bat a lot more than the others. The orange echidna also seemed to treat her as a large threat around Knuckles, which seemed strange to Tails.

The three and their thieving, destructive, lying, swearing ways were very love-or-hate, but walking into Vanilla's house they seemed to have stopped being so hostile; _**everyone **_respected Vanilla in an almost motherly way, despite whether they conversed or not, even Shadow and Rouge.

"HELLO!" The attention of the room was suddenly changed back to Charmy as he looked up from his colouring to wave ecstatically; wait for his responses (a curt nod and a reply of "Hey kid") before resuming wearing down his crayons.

"Tails...?" Knuckles called his name questioningly. The whole room was looking at him expectantly.

"Oh... Um, right, yes. Well, I've called us all here today because..." He searched for the right word "_odd _things have been happening."

"Like what?" Rouge seemed only half interested in the conversation and was studying her nails.

"Well... Amy and I have been having these repeated dreams."

"Well _everyone _dreams, kid."

Espio seemed to lean forward intently.

"What where they about?"

"Well... Mine have been mainly shapes, blurs of colours... Grey, red, purple, green, yellow, dark blue and light blue, in that order. There's been a voice too, but it's so faint I can barely hear it... And Amy's have been about Sonic."

"No surprise there." Rouge murmured not-so under her breath.

Tails flushed at how stupid he had sounded.

Espio, however, seemed interested, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

"I-I was just wondering if anything else had been happening... On Angel Island perhaps?" He turned to look at Tikal and Knuckles, half-afraid of asking for a response from the G.U.N agents as he knew a somewhat catty and sarcastic yet true response was sure to follow.

Knuckles shook his head.

"_I _haven't." He looked at Tikal.

This time was Rouge's turn to look jealous, despite the fact that the two echidnas were actually (although somewhat distantly) related, with an expression that definitely said _look at me! _

Tails stifled a laugh at his older friends.

"Actually..." Tikal began. "There was something... The grey chaos emerald that was resting in place at the alter was gone this morning. And I've been sensing strange energy around for almost a month now..."

A month... That was the same amount of time that the dreams had been coming for.

"A chaos emerald was stolen from the G.U.N security warehouse. The red one." Espio's voice rang out from across the room.

"And last week some information went missing from the database." Rouge finished.

"What information?" Tails asked curiously.

Espio, Rouge and Shadow exchanged a glance before Shadow simply said

"Each citizen has some sort of data saved onto the system, for security reasons. This information for Big, Silver, Sonic, Blaze, Cream and Vector has been deleted, as long as any information regarding the Chaos and Master emeralds. It's like they never even existed."

A heavy silence hung over the room for a second, broken only by the sound of Charmy's scribbling, before Espio looked up and addressed Rouge.

"You have not been present since that day" A slightly concerned yet mostly curious expression appeared on the chameleon's face.

"Mmm. Sick bug." She replied absentmindedly, glancing at Knuckles.

Amy blinked before grabbing Tails' wrist roughly.

"Is the date on this right Tails?" She asked, gesturing to the high-tech watch, once just a simple wristwatch before Tails had gotten his hands on it...

So, it appeared the subject had been dropped. Tails had wanted to find out more about what had happened at G.U.N, but it seemed he would have to wait until he got one of the three alone, preferably Rouge as he knew that she was the easiest to talk normally to, something that was hard recently as she seemed to be spending even more time with Knuckles...

"Erm... Yes, why?"

"It's December 5th already! Oh no, I haven't prepared _anything _for Christmas!"

"I have!" Charmy called, sitting up straight and holding up a pile of messy, hand-made cards. "But I'm not done!" He quickly drew them back to his chest protectively.

"What's Christmas?"

The surprising statement came from Tikal. It occurred to Tails that, since she had been around, she had often journeyed away to search for any history of the clan in remote places of the world and this would be her first winter around.

"A corporate holiday designed from a supposed religion but taken out of hand so that individual's must spend thousands in one month and be civil to people that they can't _stand _for the rest of the year. Count me out." Shadow answered her question in his usual way: blunt and opinionated.

"Mm. The money _is _a waste. There are more important that I can think of to spend my money this year on than people I don't like." Rouge replied. "And the simple _thought _of all of that food makes me want to heave. I'll hate getting fat. Count me out too."

It seemed that they weren't the only two that didn't want a Christmas this year; Espio had never been big on the holiday and had always been forced by Vector to celebrate. It was much too loud for him. He himself did not long for posessions and would rather spend his money on Charmy evenly throughout the year than just blow it at once, maybe purchasing a thank-you gift for Vanilla.

Knuckles had never really celebrated before, but this year he knew he would have to buy for Tikal, Tails and especially Rouge and he had _no idea _what people liked... The thought of all the confusion made him shiver.

Amy however, wanted to celebrate as she always did, if not just to keep _some _normality in her life and Vanilla knew that she would splash out and decorate the house, if only for the young ones.

"No!" Charmy said indignantly. "Christmas isn't co-poo-arate! It's a time where everyone gets together in one big house and there's a load of presents and LOADS of food and everyone eats 'till they're sick and then you watch films and eat chocolate and spend time with family! And it's all about giving and being happy and telling people how much you love them!"

"I still say it's a money grabbing opportunity" Grumbled Shadow. "Just like valentines day, birthdays..."

"Mothers and Fathers day..." Rouge said, although her mind seemed to be on something else.

"Hey, Vanilla, is there a _brothers _day?" Charmy asked.

"I don't think so dear. Why?"

"_Well_" He replied "I don't have enough time to get money for a present for Espio for Christmas... So if there's a brother's day then I can save _**all **_my money to get him one then!"

Espio smiled, a rare sight, yet one often caused by Charmy's seemingly random yet well-meant outbursts.

"I'm sure we can figure something out dear." Vanilla smiled as the young bee nodded a little too eagerly and resumed colouring.

Rouge herself couldn't help smiling at the child, watching him colour. True, before she hadn't really _liked _children but the way that they could bounce back, open up again after such a tragedy in a way that no adult could astounded her. And besides, he _was _awfully cute...

"Rouge!"

"Huh?" She looked up from where she had been watching the boy to see Shadow staring at her irritatedly. She hadn't even noticed that he had been talking to her...

"I said we're going now"

She blinked.

"Oh, right." Rouge waved half-heartedly, not even looking at Knuckles, before the two left the house, but not before Rouge noticed Vanilla look at her flat stomach almost expectantly before looking Rouge in the eyes with a supportive smile. Rouge just blinked in a confused way at the older rabbit, self-consciously touching her stomach.

Shadow also noticed the look Vanilla had given his friend and only just managed to contain himself from laughing._ He_ knew that Rouge wasn't pregnant; for Rouge, twenty was a _very _young age and he knew that she took every (well, almost...) precaution to _not _get pregnant... But at the same time, it wasn't _his _job to explain this to Vanilla, nor was it his job to help her out of any awkward, private questions the well-meaning rabbit might ask. If Rouge wanted to have such an open relationship, then she would have to deal with what people might think, especially people as old-fashioned as Vanilla.

Tails sank back into the sofa, relieved that he had gotten through that without any embarrassing situations; it was always awkward when not everybody got along, especially if half the group were 'older' and any inappropriate words were going to have to be explained to Charmy... Even though Tails himself was only eleven, he was treated as though he were older and was much more aware of his surroundings than most other children his age.

Soon after Shadow and Rouge had left, the two sole inhabitants of Angel Island also left and after bidding farewell to the two, Tails found himself at odds. He knew that Amy was spending the night here and he didn't feel like facing his house alone, especially with the nightmares he knew would be awaiting him... Especially if there was going to be a _storm _tonight...

"Tails dear?"

"Yes Miss Vanilla?"

"If you don't feel like going home, I'm sure that you could spend the night here. It might be a little bit crowded, but I'm sure we can squeeze you in."

Tails smiled gratefully; Vanilla's kindness was always welcome to his bruised heart.

"Thank you, Miss Vanilla."

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Firstly, to my wonderful reviewers, thank you so much!

I know this chapter is pretty light-hearted and all and probably not what you expected from the first chapter but...

I was going to make this like chapter four (I've had it planned for AGES) but because it was loosely Christmas based I wanted to put it BEFORE Christmas and I knew that wouldn't be possible if I didn't post it NOW. So, the character thoughts based chapter thing that I was going to have here will be next chapter. I also wanted to leave us on a high note for the holidays, instead of making it depressing.

This story will become more confusing that I Am, more supernatural than horror this time... I think.

Oh, and if you got the 'hints' I was dropping around Rouge's parts before I had Shadow say anything then well done, I'm not sure if I made it TOO discreet...

And for those of you going "ZOMG BABEEHS" then _**NO! **_Rouge is not pregnant. That would be AWFULLY inconvenient... And before you go "Yeah, that happens in real life though!" then I know that lots of unwanted pregnancies happen in real life... But it's my story, therefore I decide who gets pregnant and when :P. Plus, I really don't think that Rouge and Knuckles would be great parents at this age... 0_0. I just wanted to add a little humour to the chapter; it won't be a running theme or anything.

Sorry if this isn't amazing or anything, I think it's alright but that's up to you to decide, I normally get my chapters beta read (thank you to ChReNiC!) and leave it for about a day but he wasn't online and I wanted to post this now, BEFORE Christmas, especially as I've got to write my second half on Torture tomorrow...

Oh and the thing about Tails being scared of storms... I think it was in the early cartoons or something, I'm not sure if it was brought up in games but I think it's canon...

Basically, this is my way of saying Merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas then Happy Holidays here if you don't read Torture and if you do... Well then you get it twice :P.

So Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.

See you next year!

Cherrlex


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